NL DIVISION SERIES: PADRES VS BREWERS

October 2, 2026

Jake Bauers

Brice Turang

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Jake, we know you guys are all dealing with something this time of year, not close to 100 percent, but you probably have probably more than most with the toes, the shins, the abdomen. How much do you feel like you needed these days leading into tomorrow's game to kind of recoup physically and how are you feeling overall?

JAKE BAUERS: Yeah, I don't know about "needed." I think you get into October and it's a little different. You're almost so locked in that you're not aware of how your body is feeling, you have a job to do and you're trying to execute and get it done.

But at the same time, getting five days off, at this point in time I'm not going to complain about it. I feel good. Been feeling good through the sim games, feeling good through the workouts. But excited to get out there.

Q. For both of you guys, you both have improved your on-base percentage every year the last four years, I think. And Murph always talks about the importance of ball/strike and winning the pitch and everything. How is that skill able to improve year by year? Is it something that you have to consciously decide, or how do you work on improving that? Because you guys were the best in baseball this year getting on base.

BRICE TURANG: I think it's just the experience that you get, and the mentality of going up to the plate, trying to get the job done or not -- I don't know, I'd say it's, like, just working on your craft.

I think, for me, it's just trying get better every day, and that comes with it. Swinging at balls and strikes is a big piece of hitting. Getting your pitch to hit and handling that pitch is also a big piece of hitting. If you're fouling it off, maybe you're getting into deeper counts where you're now swinging at pitches that they want to you swing at.

I think there's a lot more that goes into it than just -- I don't know, I think it's something that you definitely work on in the aspect of when you get your pitch to hit and you hit it and you hit it hard and maybe it scares him out of the zone a little bit more and you have more quality at-bats.

JAKE BAUERS: I think for me, a big piece of it has been trust, trusting myself, trusting myself at the plate and trusting that I can let the game come to me a little bit and I don't have to necessarily go get it.

I think when you're feeling like you need to go get a pitch, that's where the chase comes in. And so a lot of it has been just kind of settling back, relaxing, understanding that regardless of who is on the mound, they have to throw the ball over the plate. And if I can swing at the ones over the plate and take the balls, chances are I'm going to put myself in a pretty good spot to succeed.

Q. I know it's a small sample size, you don't play the Padres, but they have the most success against you as an opponent. What about them makes them a difficult match-up?

JAKE BAUERS: It's a talented team, it's a great lineup, great pitching, obviously. They know how to play the game. They know how to do similar things that we do. They run the bases well. They've got some speed. They can hit the ball over the fence.

So, yeah, it's a good team. But at the end of the day there's not a team left that's not a good team. So you're going to have to play them all, and I think we feel ready.

Q. For both of you, Murph was telling us after you guys clinched a playoff spot about the boxes that you want to continue to check, but saying that last year's NLCS sweep, you guys still think about that. That is part of the motivating factor in the playoffs. Just for the two of you, how much does that stick with you and how much is that a motivating factor in the postseason?

BRICE TURANG: Yeah, I think those times hurt, for sure, and you always kind of have them in the back of your head. And you just don't want to have those moments ever again, so you're trying to win out whatever game you possibly can. And you do it for your teammates, do it for your city.

It doesn't feel good to walk home. So you don't really want that feeling anymore and you just want to win.

JAKE BAUERS: When I think back to last year, I think there was an element of maybe a little bit of lack of belief that we could do it, maybe a little too much doubt. And I think going into this postseason there's a different feeling around the team.

I think there's been a concerted effort to make sure that everybody in the room knows what we're capable of, and that it doesn't require anybody to do something that they're not able to do.

I think we've built a really good team, a really good culture, and I think we believe in each other. I think we all know that whether one person doesn't get it done, there's someone right behind them that's going to be ready to pick them up. And that's something that we've done all year, and I think that's only added to the confidence.

So I think you look at last season as an opportunity to learn from it, an opportunity to grow from it, and an opportunity to take what maybe we lacked in last year and improve upon that this year.

Q. Jake, can you think about what kind of player you were when you were drafted by the Padres compared to the player you are now? And related to that, as the national audience hears more about your story in the coming weeks, what do you want fans, even young baseball players out there, to take away from your career arc and sort of what happened for you this year at age 30?

JAKE BAUERS: It's funny. At the plate, where I'm at now, I feel more like I did when I was 17 and got drafted than, say, any other previous year in the big leagues, I think. When I was 17 and got drafted, I didn't have the most power. I think I hit one home run in the ACL, my first professional season. It was a lot of line drives. It was a lot of spraying the ball over the field, taking walks, swinging at the pitches I knew I could handle.

Somewhere along the way, either I got more power and wanted to hit for more power, whatever it was, I don't know. But I think that approach was lost a little bit, and I started swinging, not hitting.

This year, it's been a lot of things. A lot of things have gone into this year, but I think a big piece of it has been getting back to being a hitter and feeling like a hitter in the box, knowing that I can take a change-up down and away and flip it into left field for a base hit if I need to.

And that's also something that's kind of evolved as the season went on. I think early in the season I was getting challenged with a lot of fastballs and just in a good spot, not trying to do too much and hit a lot of them. And over the last month, two months, I started getting pitched a little differently and had to adjust from there.

As far as what I would tell a kid coming up, I mean, things can change so quickly in this game. And it's so easy to get down on yourself. It's so easy to feel defeated at times and not want to keep going. I mean, I know I've been there plenty of times throughout my career. But the only thing I would say is keep going, separate the days as best as you can, stay in the moment. And just enjoy it. Enjoy it all.

I know it's a little bit cliché to say, but you're winning or you're learning, right? There's no such thing as failure if you're gonna keep showing up every day. And I think there's something that I think there's something the guy that's gonna keep showing up -- good, bad, ugly, pretty, doesn't matter. You just keep going and keep learning and one day you'll look up and be where you want to be.

Q. What's the feeling from the other 25 guys in the clubhouse on a day that Miz is pitching?

BRICE TURANG: I can only really speak for me, but I can also see it, the confidence that we carry in him, kind of in all of our pitchers every day that we go out there excited to go out there and compete behind him, watch him throw. I mean, what he does is incredible. It's a gift, for sure.

And then seeing him grow as a player from last year to now this year and understanding the game a little bit more. It's been fun. It's been a really good time.

And the confidence behind him, everyone's got it. With him on the mound, everyone's got the confidence in him.

Like I said, it's kind of the whole pitching staff. We're all behind our pitching staff. We think they're all very, very good at what they do. And so it's been fun to play defense behind these guys, and to watch them do what they do, it's pretty incredible.

Q. Back in August, you guys struggled with runners in scoring position against the Padres. And I think Jake said something about everyone needs to kind of chill out. How much of that experience kind of serves you now in a situation where the stakes are going to be much higher and maybe runs are going to be harder to come by just in a playoffs series?

JAKE BAUERS: I think a lot of that goes back to having the confidence and faith, not only in yourself but in your teammates, knowing that I don't have to get the job done. There's a guy behind me who's ready to get the job done as well. If it's me, it's me. If it's not, I'll take the walk, go to first base and pass it on to the next guy.

If you're trying to force things in this game, it's not probably going to go your way. So I think I can speak for the lineup when I say a lot of the individual success has come from having confidence in the guys in front of you and behind you to either set the table or to come through if you don't. So I think as long as we lean on each other and we keep that faith in each other, we'll be just fine.

Q. Jake, you've talked a lot this year about this mentality of not dwelling on past results, whether good or bad and how that's been important to your individual success. What are the challenges of that, and how much more important is that in the postseason when everything is kind of accelerated and you feel like you have to get results quicker than maybe over the course of a 162-game season?

JAKE BAUERS: I think it depends. I think it's a skill. I think it's a learned skill. If it's not something that you've been practicing for a season, two seasons, years, then, yeah, it's going to be tough.

But if it's something that you put your focus on every day and that's your goal is to be in the moment and move on from a mistake or whatever it is, then you're going to put yourself in a position to move on quickly and be ready for the next opportunity.

Q. You guys both have had plate appearances in your career against Mason Miller. What is it that separates his fastball from other guys who throw 100 miles per hour?

BRICE TURANG: I would say, it's like a heavy fastball. That's how I would look at it. It's heavy and it's coming at you at 104, 103.

There's some guys who throw 100 and it doesn't always feel like 100 and there's some guys who throw 100 and it feels like 100. It's proven over his career.

So, like Jake said, we've just got to let it come to us and handle what we can handle.

JAKE BAUERS: He's a big-ass dude, too. So that doesn't help your cause. But, no, obviously he's the best in the game. I think the mentality is try to have a good at-bat. Whatever happens after that is whatever happens.